Varying Degrees of Hopelessness

<p><b><u>By the author of <i>Ducks, Newburyport</i>, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2019 and the Goldsmiths Prize</u></b><br><br><b>'Funny and furious ... Lucy Ellmann is clever, and very angry'</b> <i>The Times</i><br><br>In an eminent London art institute - the Catafalque - Our Heroine Isabel (she of the obsessional habits, perpetual virginity and peculiar belly button) sit in wistful contemplation of Chardin's brushstrokes and the virile red socks of passing lecturers.<br><br>Isabel's wholly imaginary love life (based on the romantic notions of authoress Babs Cartwheel) bears little resemblance to that of her flatmate Pol, who prefers to grip reality by the balls.<br><br>Enter Robert, victim of an American childhood, kitsch memorabilia, academic rivalry, Pol's belly-dancing and Isabel's mute adoration. Can he be perverse enough not to despair?</p>